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Mo eggs, mo problems

In one way or another, just about everything so far this weekend has been made more complicated because of eggs. And tomorrow’s the big egg day – I shudder in fear of what that means.

I’ve made a huge mistake

We’ve got a lot of little birds that like to hang out around our neighborhood. Some of them have figured out how to wiggle their way into our attic and make nests in the rafters of the house, which is actually okay with me. Other than some straw I have to clean up in the summer, they’re not doing any harm.

Last year, some enterprising swallow made himself/herself (who takes the lead on nest construction?) a nest right outside our front door. I wasn’t overly thrilled about it, but I let it stay since the birds had already laid eggs in it, the kids like to watch them come and go, and I could just go in and out through the garage for a few weeks anyway. I told myself I’d knock it down in the fall and that would be that.

But then I forgot to knock it down.

I was reminded of this error when I came home earlier this week to find evidence that someone had taken up residence in our front porch avian condo. Now I can’t knock down because I’d have the guilt of destroying a tiny little bird family’s home (and probably their eggs in the process). And I don’t need that kind of guilt in my life. So I’ve got to deal with tiny swallows angrily swooping about if I try to go through our front door for the next few weeks.

Oh, did I mention that my garage door remote has totally stopped working, so I have to use the front door to get in/out of the house? Yes, that’s the part of this that really sucks. So now when we get home in the evenings, I have to make the kids stay in the car while I go flush out the birds. Then we’ve got about a 30-second window where we can all safely proceed into the house.

Winged fury

Speaking of eggs and the birds that like to attack you if they think you’re coming to close to them, the psychotic mockingbird that plagued The Wife last year is back. And it has expanded what it considers to be its territory. And it has decided that I am also a threat. (Last year, it just attacked The Wife, but tonight it came after me – repeatedly.)

So now, if the swallows don’t kill The Dog and me at the front door as we leave for our nightly walk, the crazed mockingbird along our path probably will.

Finally, there’s the eggs that came from the birds that I thankfully have not met

And of course, it’s Easter weekend, so eggs are on the brain anyway. Yesterday, we dyed our batch for 2012 and I think they came out pretty well. The Wife busted out her crayons and made several pretty ones and I made a Yoshi egg, which The Boy criticized for having circular dots instead of elliptical ones. He’s a stickler for accuracy.

Tomorrow, we will hunt them. Or rather, the kids will. I don’t think we’re allowed to hunt for Easter eggs at our age.